CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The Interior Department is establishing new federal interim procedures for reviewing permits for mountaintop coal mining.
The practice announced Wednesday requires improved coordination among the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Those three agencies will work with coal mining states to ensure that mining activities near streams will not violate state or federal water quality standards.
The new procedures will remain in place while officials work to reverse a last-minute Bush-era surface mining regulation that allowed mining companies to mine within 100 feet of a stream.
Developing a new rule is expected to take at least a year.
